mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator for ohio. mr. portman: i would like to talk today about a couple topics. first i want to thank my colleagues on the senate commerce committee for approving legislation very recently to rename the nasa plumbrook station in ohio after a true american hero, the late-neal armstrong. i ask that it legislation be taken up and we get it passed. there is an identical bill in the house and we hope to get both of them to the president for his signature. it is a state-of-the-art testing facility near sandusky, ohio. it is doing a lot of the testing right now both for nasa and some private-sector companies. it is part of the nasa-glenn complex. it is an impressive operation. the one that is most impressive right now is the artifice project. this is to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024, including the first woman. this will will lay the groundwork for a manned mission to mars. it is exciting stuff and at plumbrook they're already testing critical components of the rocket engines scheduled to carry artimas a

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator for ohio. mr. portman: monday was veterans day, and it gave us all the opportunity to come together as republicans and democrats, independents alike to express our immense gratitude to our veterans for putting on the uniform of the united states. on behalf of all of us, i just listened to my colleague from colorado talk about our cherished veterans and their service. and he is a champion for our veterans. and he's absolutely right. our veterans need to be at the front of the line for health care and getting the access to the best care possible. hasn't always been the case. we've made some improvements in the last few years. those are now being implemented. they're not perfect, but thankfully it is much better. and i heard that over veterans day. he also talked about our families, and the families of veterans also make sacrifices. sometimes we forget that. in the last several years, as the optempo has been a little higher and families have had to sacrifice even more, we are particularly grateful for

mr. portman. i want to go back to midband and ask the question, are there bureaucratic roadblocks preventing that, or are we just moving too slow on it? >> thank you, senator. i think we are moving too slow. there's 16 other countries that have already brought midband spectrum to market. they're developing scale that we don't yet have. i think that frankly the administration made the easy choice, which was to focus on fairly unoccupied high band airwaves first and push them to market through auction. but i think that's a strategic mistake. >> the reason i'm asking, a couple months ago on a congress committee hearing we were sensing a road block. i met with chairman pai on 24 gigahertz. the roadblock is no longer there, which is good. i'm wondering, are there other roadblocks that people maybe aren't willing to testify to at the table today but, you know, i would encourage you to let me know so we can write letters or whatever to get rid of those. >> our airwaves are a finite resource, and every on

mr. chairman. >> senator portman. portman: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate your willingness to serve, secretary sullivan. it's going to be extremely difficult. you will be dealing with the relationship -- we talked about these problems earlier today, the interference in our activities,align russia's malign activities around the world, cyber attacks, certainly what's going on in terms of this information, which i want to talk to you about in a second. we spent a lot of time of the ukraine issue. we did not talk much about syria . but even today as we sit here, there's the potential for u.s. forces and russian forces to be in conflict for the first time in many years. there's lots going on. having served in three administrations now you have the background and the experience to handle that, i believe. i'm glad you are willing to do it. i will -- i believe that you iwill be able to answer the questions raised by i my colleagues in a way that will confirmed.ll be senator murphy and i had a wecussion a few years ago -- have been trying to ensure that

mr. manchin: madam president, i want to first say thank you to my colleague, senator mitch mcconnell, senator portman, jones, kaine, duckworth you brown, casey, warner, sinema, van hollen and reed who have cosponsored this legislation with he moo and for standing with me to protect coalminers' protections. senator capito will be joining me on the floor today. yesterday marked the 51's anniversary of the mine disaster where 78 minors lost their lives in farmington, west virginia, which is my hometown. i lost my uncle in that mine explosion. i lost my neighbor and several of my classmates in this tragedy that rocked my hometown and it seems like only yesterday. i have always said that one life lost while on the job is one too many and it shouldn't happen. this tragedy shows the risks that our coalminers take every day to provide our country with the energy that we need, which is why i'm here today. when coal companies go bankrupt, coalminers' benefits are at the bottom of the priority list, which is how we've ended up in this situation today. that is unacceptable. it should be unacceptable to all of us

the legislation introduced by senator portman and senator kaine and cosponsored by cardin, gillibrand, hassan, klobuchar, stabenow, baldwin. these are all democrats, mr. president. brown. now here is a republican, capito, coons, ernst, jones, moran, shaheen, sinema, smith, wicker, brawnd. this is legislation that we all -- and braun. this is legislation that we all agree on, on short-term pell grants. then we have senators grassley, smith, cassidy, ernst, hassan, jones, klobuchar, manchin and rubio would like to simplify the federal aid letter so you don't get a letter in the mail if you're living in maryland or tennessee and think you have got a grant that you don't have to pay back when in fact it's a loan that you do have to pay back. we also agree on increasing the maximum pell grant. and we also agree on how to pay for it. we also agree on permanent funding for the historically black colleges and institutions in a way that the budget committee can easily approve and that can pass the senate. so if we can agree on all that and it all helps students at historically black colleges and minority-serving institutions, then why don't we pass it. why do

mr. portman: mr. president, i'd like to take this opportunity to talk about something positive that's happening back home in ohio with the help of the u.s. army corps of engineers. the army corps is involved with some civic-minded community volunteers in something that will help us to preserve our history in ohio. it wouldn't be happening but for the vision of the head of the army corps, mr. r.d. james, the assistant secretary of the army for civil works. it is a good-news project regarding the preservation of an important piece of history in the northwest territories in my home state of ohio. it is called the barker house. it is an historic home dates back almost 200 years when it was built by the owner's father who was a revolutionary war father. it is -- a number of historic homes of his were built along the ohio river and this is one still left standing. joseph colonel barker senior h. sr. was his name. he is one of our most famous early pioneers in ohio. it was listed on the list of national hist

mr. portman: i support the underlying legislation strongly as both my colleagues here know and as my friends across the aisle know. i think the legislation is needed right now unbelievably. if you're in a small business, less than 50% of workers have access to a retirement plan. two-thirds of americans think that they're in trouble and in retirement, they don't have enough money to take care of their retirement. they're right to be worried. we have a huge problem if this country. and that's what the underlying bill addresses. it helps small businesses to be able to offer plans which is where most of the problem is in terms of a lack of retirement savings, peace of mind in retirement that all of our constituents want. the problem is that the legislation that came over from the house was never considered here in the senate floor. in fact, you go back to 2016 when it was last considered and that was by the finance committee, so i think it's reasonable to say, yes, this underlying bill is good and i strongly support it. but let's have a little debate here on the floor. and we shouldn't be afraid